I slept really well last night, first time for a week. The Travelodge in Norwich last week wasn't the quietest of places, bus station one side and main road the other and there was the excitement of completing on the cottage. I was exhausted yesterday.

Dove's meals always sound wonderful. We will be having a goose and a guinea fowl. Don't know about first course, friend is bringing it and she won't tell me! Another friend is bringing a trifle and there will be Christmas pud too. We will be 8 at table.

Daughter and family are coming to lunch, must get a move on, we are an hour ahead here in France.

In Dordogne we have longer summers than in the UK (except this year when we had frosts in early October!). Often we don't get cold weather until January when it can be very cold. Plants get used to it. I don't have any daffodils showing yet and only tips of snowdrops. One year my clematis "Bleu d'Azur" was flowering in early January. It was late to flower later that year and didn't grow quite as well, but it's got over it.